The frightening incident sees Eric (Chris Chittell) hit in the stomach when he refuses to hand any money over, but perhaps the biggest surprise is that Dan Spencer witnesses the whole thing and chooses not to step in as he's frozen with fear.

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Next week's episodes see the culprits, Josh and Jamie, released by the police pending further investigation. As a result, it's not long before they smugly return to the village, believing they've got away with it.

Eric also comes close to making a devastating mistake of his own when David's wife Tracy comes to visit him at the barn. Mistaking Tracy for an intruder, Eric wildly swings a cricket bat at her – nearly causing another nasty accident.

With Pollard clearly going through hell right now, how long can this really go on before Dan realises he has to do the right thing?

Liam Fox, who plays Dan, revealed: "First and foremost Dan's priority is the safety of Amelia and Kerry, but he's still always feeling guilty about whether he should do something. One of the kids threatens to have a go at Amelia, so that is the thing that holds Dan back.

"It's veiled threats that are made against Amelia, things like: 'That daughter of yours, we know where she goes to school' and all this sort of thing.

"Dan is angry about it, but he is led to believe that this kid is involved with quite a heavy family. So it's not just him, it's the people he is connected with him that could have repercussions. Dan is more wary of a bigger situation that might kind of explode, rather than that particular kid.

"Dan tries to tell Pollard and David that the family of one of the boys are nasty little thugs, but he feels the guilt increasing as time goes on. At the end of the day, Pollard is an old guy and Dan should have done something."

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.